Word: armfuls
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...role at all in governmental affairs. Pakistan is, and always has been, the most dependable U.S. ally in all of South and Central Asia. When President Nixon sought to engage China, it was Pakistan that helped. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, it was Pakistan which stepped up to arm and train the mujahedeen. In the ’50s and ’60s, Pakistani bases were used by American U-2s spying on the Soviet Union. Today, those very bases have become staging grounds for the war on terror. Yet America’s ally has fallen on hard...
...doing out of physical necessity. For Holgersen, technology has already become a part of his body. Eight years ago, on a motorcycle trip to the U.K. to visit his sister, he was in an accident and broke his neck. Except for some minor movement in his shoulders, left arm and left hand, he was paralyzed below the neck. Holgersen underwent an experimental surgical procedure to implant a neural prosthesis - an interface between an electronic device and the human nervous system - to bypass the damaged stretches of his spinal cord and restore some movement to his limbs...
...restore basic function to his left arm, Holgersen uses the Freehand System, a device that restores the ability to grasp, hold and release objects. During a seven-hour operation, surgeons at Denmark's National Hospital made incisions in Holgersen's upper left arm, forearm and chest. Eight flexible cuff electrodes, each about the size of a small coin, were attached to the muscles in his arm and hand that control grasping. These electrodes were then connected by ultrathin wires to a stimulator - a kind of pacemaker for the nervous system - implanted in his chest. The stimulator was in turn linked...
When Holgersen wants to pick up a glass, he moves his right shoulder upward. This movement sends an electrical signal from the position sensor, which is worn under his clothing, to the stimulator in his chest, which amplifies it and passes it along to the appropriate muscles in his arm and hand. In response, the muscles contract and his left hand closes. When he wants to release the glass, he moves his right shoulder downward and his left hand opens...
...Freehand is not for everyone, though. To benefit from the device, patients must have use of a shoulder and upper arm and partial use of their hands. The technology can be fragile, too, and patients must be constantly on guard against infection around the implanted electronics. Another drawback is that the Freehand system provides no tactile feedback for things like temperature, so users also have to be careful when handling hot objects such as cigarettes or coffee. To get around this problem, Thomas Sinkjaer and colleagues at the Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction at Denmark's Aalborg University are developing...